Clash of the Seasons
by The Glittering Pencils
Summary: Jack Frost finds out that he is not the only seasonal spirit. When a prophecy rises that tells of a disastrous Event wiping out all but one season, the other three spirits become hostile. Winter's chances of winning the clash of the seasons and surviving the Event are low when Jack begins to fall for the charming Spirit of Spring. Oh dear...
1. Message from the Moon

_**Clash of the Seasons**_

_Chapter One: Message from the Moon_

The Man in the Moon has been silent since the defeat of Pitch Black, three years ago. He hasn't spoken to any of the Guardians, and he hasn't given a single sign of existence in a long while. He simply rose into the dark sky after sunset and sank beneath the horizon whilst the sun woke up again. And, occasionally, he would show his face during the day time. But even so, that was all he did; show his face and keep quiet.

The Guardians took this as a good omen. The moon only made contact when something in the world is terribly wrong or off balance. So as long as the moon doesn't say much, everything is bright and dandy, right? The children are safe, and the earth isn't in any real danger.

Nicholas St. North relished these three years of serenity. He sat in his Workshop and carved ice sculptures to his heart's content while eating cookies baked by irresponsible elves. His yetis made the toys each year for Christmas, and all Santa had to do was work one night a year, delivering those presents to the nice kids.

It was a peaceful day in the month of January that this era of true concord, since the Boogeyman's attempt to take over the world, came to an end.

Father Christmas was thoroughly enjoying the comforts of hot chocolate and a considerably large plate of sugar cookies on that cold, cold day, when a dark haired yeti stormed into his chamber, shouting gibberish which only made sense Santa and the cryptid.

"What?" North sputtered, spitting the gulp of cookies he was chewing all over the Himalayan giants. "You say that Manny has urgent news? Now?"

The yeti nodded its furry head, eagerly motioning toward the door.

The Guardian of Wonder chugged down his remaining cup of hot chocolate and slammed the mug onto a nearby coffee table. He stretched in an exaggerative manner before heaving himself from the comfortable armchair, rising to his full height. "Don't make a fuss; I'm coming."

The yeti led North out of his quiet room and into the mayhem that was the Workshop. Three levels of balconies surrounded a pillar of spiral stairs and on these levels, where yetis constructed and decorated toys for all the children of the world. The elves were bringing chaos as they trolled around the work space of the yetis, playing with electric lights and knocking over buckets of paint. Various objects flew through the air such as mechanical jellyfish, model aircrafts, and live origami birds.

North paid no attention to any of this as he made his way to the globe room where the roof was clear, like an astronomy observatory. He looked through the glass ceiling to see a waxing gibbous moon in the empty cerulean sky.

Its light was streaming into the room, casting a sinister blue ray onto the sign of the Guardians; an elegant _G _neatly embedded into the floor of the Workshop.

Santa and his yetis gasped in astonishment as the logo sank down and was replaced by a massive chunk of crystal. It was like the day Jack Frost was chosen to fight alongside the legends of childhood. Thinking that Man in Moon must have selected a new Guardian, North rubbed his hands together in excitement, waiting for the moonlight to reflect off of the crystal and create a projection of what the chosen one would look like.

With an agonizingly slow speed, the ray of moonlight finally reached the crystal at the correct angle. North stared at it in wonder as the light particles sluggishly morphed into… a snowflake?

Father Christmas frowned at the blue holograph which was projecting the symbol of winter and its spirit, Jack Frost. "What does this mean?" he asked himself.

Suddenly, the snowflake popped out of its projection and gently sank to the ground as a real piece of snow, gently landing on the floor. And before North could examine it, another image appeared over the crystal. It was a single, orange-red maple leaf, which became real as it escaped the rays of the moon.

North picked up these two items in utter perplexity. The snowflake did not melt in his hand and the maple leaf glowed with a golden light. _"A leaf and a snowflake… This is very strange."_ he thought, scratching the top of his head.

At that moment, a delicate purple flower floated to him, also conjured from the crystal and the moon. Right after the flower was a glowing sphere of sunlight.

How moonlight could have conjured sunlight, North did not have the faintest idea of how that was possible, but he soon recognized a pattern in the four objects that were ejected to him."Summer…" her murmured, watching the ball of golden light hover in the air. "Autumn, spring," – the maple leaf and the purple flower – "And winter…" The snowflake was still frozen in its unique shape.

The objects instantly shot away from North's hands, as if acknowledging that he had figured out what each of them meant. The leader of the Guardians watched in horror as the four beautiful symbols began fighting with one another. They circled each other dangerously; summer's glow flared as autumn tried to attack it and winter sent a stream of frost at spring.

North wanted to break them apart, but the mini battle was high in the air, completely out of his reach.

Then, the whole atrium went dark as a tidal wave of blackness enveloped all of the seasons. The wind picked up speed, and North and his yetis were forced to squint their eyes and shield their faces as they watched the ocean of darkness swallow up the seasons to where only four distinctive glows were visible through the fog.

One of the lights flickered out, and North realized with shock that one of the seasons had just died. But he couldn't tell which one it was. Seconds later, two of the three remaining seasons also went dark, signaling that two more seasons were wiped out by the darkness. The leader of the Guardians waited with wide eyes for the fourth light to dim, but it stayed.

Before North could find out which season had survived, the entire vision vanished as the moon's light moved away from the crystal and the magical moment was over. The Guardian of Wonder stood there, flabbergasted, whilst the crystal sank back into the floor of the globe room.

All was quiet except for a few grunts made by the yetis. North slowly began to understand what the moon had shown him. It was a prophecy, a foretelling of some sort, about the four seasons of the year. Something was going to happen, he realized, a disaster event that would leave only one season alive while the others are wiped from the face of the earth. And Jack Frost… he could either survive the Event, and winter will become the reigning season. Or he could be one of the three that will be eaten up by the black wave.

For a long time, North had known that there were spirits of summer, spring, and autumn, but he never thought about them much. They never made contact with the Guardians and the Guardians left them alone, as well. The jolly man couldn't imagine how summer, spring, and autumn would react if they found out about this prophecy.

The other three seasons have quite different personalities and points of views. They are unpredictable, and there's no way of knowing whether they will become hostile or remain civil about the matter that only one of them will live through the Event. For all North knew, they could have already heard of the divination and are building up an army to fight each other!

If this was the case, North knew that he and the other Guardians had to help Jack. They had to make sure that he doesn't get ambushed by summer or targeted by spring. And most of all, they had to help him survive the Event when it comes.

North hesitated as he reached for the button on his panel of controls that would generate the aurora borealis. He hadn't pushed that button since Pitch Black tried to return. Could this prophecy be as serious as the rise of the Boogeyman? Or is it really just a prank by Man in Moon? Is it worth calling the other Guardians from their duties?

The Russian gazed up at the moon, remembered the urgency of its message, and made up his mind. He slammed the large blue-green button down with his fist.

The globe roared to life as it spewed ribbons of turquoise and magenta light in all directions. The Northern Lights billowed like flags as they escaped from an antenna at the top of the Workshop and spread across the sky for all to see.


	2. Alliance Difficulties

_Chapter Two: Alliance Difficulties_

The globe room was in a state of utter disorder as the Tooth Fairy and a few of her helpers shot into the Workshop, their wings whipping up such a strong wind that a neat, sorted stack of letters to Santa were blown to the ground, much to a certain yeti's horror. At about the same time, a giant rabbit hole opened in the floor of the globe room where the Easter Bunny shot out, looking slightly annoyed that he was called away from his duties. Jack Frost arrived in a manner similar to Tooth's whilst he swooped into the Workshop, knocking over things and disturbing the progress of the yetis with the chilly winter breeze he brought along with him.

And lastly, being the only Guardian to enter civilly, Sandy the Sandman gently floated in on a cloud of dreamsand. He merrily waved to the elves and yetis scattered around the globe room.

"Ah," North had been sitting in front of his fireplace, waiting for his colleagues. He stood up to welcome the other Guardians as they gathered around him. "Thank you, everyone, for coming. I'm afraid I have some very disturbing news…"

Tooth perked up, her face in an expression of worry, "You've eaten too many cookies without flossing and now you have a tartar buildup?"

Before North could reply, Bunnymund also took a guess, "The elves are planning to rebel against you? Not that I'm surprised."

"You found out I didn't read the Guardian's Handbook when I said I did?" Jack asked in panic, hugging his staff with exaggerated alarm.

North blinked as he was caught off guard by all the wild guesses that were thrown at him. "Uh, no. As I was saying – wait!" He interrupted himself and violently turned to Jack, having fully processed what the boy had said. "You didn't read the Handbook?! I told you to look at it. You told me you did!"

Jack shrugged, "I _did _look at it. The front cover. You never said I had to bother opening the book."

The Guardians of Wonder looked like he was going to argue, but Sandy quickly intervened, morphing his dreamsand into a light bulb to signal North that he was getting off topic.

Santa sighed and rubbed his forehead, "We'll come back to this," he warned the spirit of winter, waving a finger at him. Turning back to the others, he continued, "As I was saying, Man in Moon has finally made contact after three years. He showed me a vision… about Jack."

The mention of the name immediately drew in all of the Guardians' full attentions, especially the subject of the matter. "Me?" he asked, cocking his head to one side in curiosity. "You said this was _disturbing_ news. Am I going to die or something?"

North folded his hands together and took a few seconds to think about how he should word his next thoughts. "Jack, do you know that there are three other spirits who control the remaining three seasons, asides from winter?"

"…What…?" the Guardian of Fun frowned slightly. Jack had never really thought about belonging to another group of immortals other than the Guardians. "You mean… there's a spirit of summer, autumn, and spring? Who are they? Why haven't you told me?"

"Well… um," North scratched the top of his head, eyes shifting left and right as he struggled to come up with a decent answer. "I assumed you'd figure it out sooner or later. Winter isn't the only season, after all."

"So you know them?" Jack asked.

"Of course we know them," Bunnymund snapped, his Australia accent making him sound rather intimidating.

"It's not that we're exactly friendly with them…" Tooth said softly.

Bunnymund cleared his throat at this, and the fairy quickly corrected herself, "_Most_ of us aren't friendly with them. We each have our own reasons, but the spring spirit is Bunny's second cousin. So, naturally, he doesn't want us to place her into the same category as autumn and summer. Summer's been very bitter toward us ever since he found out you joined the Guardians."

"Wait, what? Why?" This topic was making the boy feel very uneasy which wasn't normal for him. He's usually care-free and nothing can truly faze him… except for maybe when North gets moody on Christmas Eve night rush.

Tooth and North exchanged concerned looks. "You see…" the Tooth Fairy began. "When Man in Moon turned you into the spirit of winter, the spirit of summer named you his personal rival, so summer's not very happy about you joining us. It puts you at a higher rank than him."

Frankly, Jack found that to be a very stupid reason to hate the Guardians. In his mind, he imagined the spirit of summer to be some arrogant, muscular, blonde surfer with suntanned skin. The boy snorted with amusement at his vision.

"And Autumn is just plain hard to like," North said, crossing his arms. It was obvious that he didn't like the spirit of fall one bit. "Spring…" he paused and glanced toward Bunny.

The mascot of Easter was glaring at the jolly man dangerously, daring him to say anything foul about the spirit.

Santa quickly shut his mouth about what he was planning to express. "The point is," he placed a comforting hand on Jack's shoulder. "There is a bringer of each season and they don't favor us, so we leave them be and they leave us be."

"Okay…" Jack nodded uncertainly. "What does this have to do with the disturbing news?"

North closed his eyes and opened them again, slowly. "The prophecy that Manny showed me, I think I understand its meaning, but it is not a pleasant one." He looked around to make sure that all the Guardians were listening carefully. "A disaster is coming," he sounded very ominous without even trying. "The Event is targeted at the four seasonal spirits. Only one of them will survive it while the other three perish. I don't know if this is some kind of test from Mother Nature or…" he faltered before going on. "All I'm certain of is that it's real because Man in Moon told us so. And when the moon tells you something, you'd better believe it.

"I fear that summer, autumn, and spring may become hostile if they hear about this. We know that autumn is very… warlike. Spring is very territorial, too, so we'd best stay out of her realm or she might shoot us down. This is also summer's chance to knock you off your pedestal, Jack. He'll be looking for a chance to challenge you."

"What are we supposed do?" Tooth asked. Her little helpers were frantically flying around Jack's, making fussy squeaks when they realized that he might be in danger.

"I'll tell you what we do!" North said with great authority. "We first pray that the other spirits do not know about the prophecy. We protect Jack when the Event comes and make sure that winter is the surviving season!"

"Hey, what's with the 'we'?" Bunny replied, pointing his paw at himself and North. "Trixie's my cousin. I'm not just going to leave her to die at the mercy of the bloody Event."

The Guardians quickly realized that they had a serious problem. "Bunny…" Santa said gently. "Only one season can live." He glanced uncomfortably between Jack and the Easter Bunny. "Jack is a Guardian, and he needs to live to protect the children."

Bunny felt agitation bubbling within his chest. "If you're trying to convince me to help Jack and not my own cousin, it's not going to work, mate. I've got to tell Trixie about the prophecy so she can get ready for it. Jack has all of you to help him, and Trixie doesn't have anyone."

"Will you all stop talking about me like I'm not here?!" Jack cried out with frustration.

Neither Guardian paid any attention to him. After a staring contest with North, Bunny angrily tapped the floor with his large feet, and a rabbit hole opened.

"Wait, Bunny!" Tooth pleaded, flying over to him. "Don't go. We can work something out about Jack and Trixie. We can try to save both of them!"

Without even acknowledging the beautiful fairy, Bunnymund dropped into the rabbit hole, leaving the Workshop behind.

"Oh no…" Tooth murmured as the hole closed again, cutting off any chances of going after the Easter Bunny. "North, we just drove Bunny away. He could have been a huge help."

North nodded grimly, "I know, Tooth. But it was his decision and he chose spring over winter."

"You can't blame him," Jack added, staring at the spot on the floor where the rabbit hole had been. "He's the Easter Bunny. Easter and Spring are partners; with no spring, there's no Easter either."

"But without winter, there's no Christmas!" North countered. "Christmas is much more important than Easter. Why can't he just move his holiday to another season?"

"Why can't you move _your_ holiday to another season, North?" Tooth replied smoothly. When there was no answer, the fairy sighed. "I think we should be more worried about Jack himself, not the season he brings. He needs to know as much about the other spirits as possible.

Sandy's dreamsand formed the shape of a large book with its pages being flipped slowly.

North let out a tired breath. "Walk with me, Jack." He turned began leading him in the direction of his ice sculpting room.

Jack followed him and when he looked back at Tooth and Sandy, he saw that they were exchanging troubled gazes as the Guardian of Dreams rapidly morphed shapes from dreamsand, obviously having a detailed conversation with the fairy.

* * *

**A/N: I hope I didn't make any of the canon characters too OOC. If I did, don't hesitate to tell me so, okay? Please, please, please, review! It's so frustrating when you see so many views for your story, but only two reviews or so. So be kind and review, even if you didn't like it or are neutral with it. And of course, thanks so much for reading! This is my first story so I apologize if I'm a bit rusty ^_^:**


	3. The Hollow

_Chapter Three: The Hollow_

Jack followed North into the room where new toy designs were carved out of ice. The boy remembered this place from when the leader of the Guardians had tried to explain what a Center was. He looked to the right and saw that the Russian nesting doll was still on the shelf, staring at him from under bushy eyebrows and brandishing its painted swords.

North picked up his magical snow globe from a nearby table and shook it up to make the fake snow swirl wildly inside. "The Hollow," Jack heard him whisper to the glass sphere. Then, the man tossed the snow globe to the ground.

It shattered, releasing a wave of sparkles which quickly formed a magic portal.

Jack peered into the circular swirl of glitter. "What – Where are we going? North?"

Father Christmas put a hand on Jack's back and began walking him into the portal. "We are going to the place where Mother Earth records her spirits' stories for eternity. It's like a museum or sanctuary in some ways; a tribute to the seasonal spirits." He gave the boy a little push toward the gateway to the Hollow.

Jack watched as North walked into the portal and disappeared. The boy gripped his staff and hastily followed the jolly man. He slowly stepped into the void and came out on the other side.

The place where the two Guardians stood was quiet and peaceful. It was a narrow tunnel with green, moss covered walls that appeared to glow. The floor was shiny marble and cold under Jack's bare feet.

"Come," North was barely able to stand up comfortably under the low ceiling. He led Jack further into the shaft toward a yellow-green light at the end of the passageway. They soon arrived in a beautiful atrium with a very high ceiling. There were four fountains in each of the four corners of the room which flowed silver water. Again, the room was lit with glowing mosses that grew along the walls and ceilings, giving the place an eerie atmosphere.

There were three roads that branched out from the fountain room. Each tunnel had a banner hanging magnificently over the entrance, depicting a flower, the sun, and an orange-red leaf.

Jack immediately noticed that his symbol, the snowflake, wasn't found anywhere on the walls or the banners. "I don't get it. Where's winter?"

"This temple was built by Mother Nature," North explained. "All the other seasons were chosen by the Earth, and so they have a place in the Hollow. But Man in Moon brought you back alive, Jack. Mother Nature refuses to put you in her temple because she did not choose you. This place is sacred to her, the place where she honors the seasons that she handpicked herself. You won't find yourself here."

Truly a bit disappointed, Jack shook his head and tailed North as the leader of the Guardians marched to the entrance of the tunnel with the sun banner hanging over it.

"This is the shrine of summer, Jack," North informed while they entered the passageway to their left, walking side by side since the road was widening. "All the shrines record the stories of the seasonal spirits; why they were chosen and how they became what they are now." He motioned to the walls which have turned from green moss to glowing orange.

Jack noticed elegant carvings in the gold walls. One of the biggest indention read, "Augustus Phoenix," the winter spirit stared at the words for a long time before asking North, "Is that his name? Augustus?"

North nodded, "Spirit of summertime, Emperor of Heat, Ambassador of the Sun, and Augustus the Radiant. He's been around for almost five hundred years, now. Don't touch the walls, Jack."

The pale boy retracted his hand away from the carvings that he was almost about to touch. "Why?"

"This is the temple of summer, my boy," North drew one of his dual swords and touched the walls with the blade. To Jack's astonishment, the blade began to glow with heat, like it was being tempered at a blacksmith's shop. "As you can see," Father Christmas said, sheathing his sword again. "It is very hot in here. Unless you want to burn yourself, I suggest you keep away from the walls."

Jack instinctively moved closer to the center of the tunnel. "Right, got it. So why did you bring me here, again?"

"You need to learn about the other spirits, like Tooth had suggested" North began walking again, deeper into the tunnel. "The other spirits know all about you so it won't be safe for you to be clueless about them if they should become unfriendly with us."

The tunnel was beginning to get uncomfortably hot the deeper they went. Jack tugged at the collar of his hoodie in a futile attempt to cool himself down. The heat didn't seem to affect North at all but then again, Jack's body temperature was only about 30 degrees Fahrenheit while North's was almost 100.

Suddenly, Santa stopped in his tracks, and Jack nearly ran into him. They had arrived in an area where the path widens to about the size of a highway. To their right was a smooth, polished part of the golden wall that was as big as a movie screen.

"Look…" North urged Jack toward it.

At first, the winter spirit couldn't see anything but his own reflection on the shiny surface but when he looked closer, he noticed that the wall was slightly transparent and a thin cylinder case was trapped in it. It didn't take long for Jack to realize that it was a tooth box from the Tooth Fairy's palace. "Their teeth are here…"

"Mother Nature requested that her season's memories be handed over to her for safe keeping," North explained calmly. "She did not believe that Tooth could take care of them well enough."

Jack felt a swell of annoyance. "But Tooth's the Tooth Fairy. She would be the best person to take care of teeth! Why doesn't Mother Nature just trust her?"

"I don't know, my boy," North admitted. "But she insisted, and it is not wise to cross paths with Earth goddess." He turned back to the smooth wall that contained Augustus's teeth. "However, we can see the story of the spirit of summer here."

They both watched for any movement on the surface.

Suddenly, an image flashed across the screen. It showed a teenaged boy with chocolate colored skin, closely shaven black hair, and warm brown eyes. He was with a skinny woman who was probably his mother.

"That is Augustus when he was still human, in the beginning of the 17th century," North narrated. "He was the only child of his mother, and they lived in northern Africa." The scene changed and August and his mother appeared to be arguing about something. The woman offered a bowl to the boy, but Augustus refused it, giving it back. "Water was scarce during a drought when he was nineteen, and many people had a sickness that could be cured by constantly hydrating," North continued in monotone. "He refused to take water until he's made sure that his ill mother had enough first."

Jack watched the scene shift again. This time, it showed the boy, appearing to be dizzy and weak from dehydration, stumbling through the dry savannah and collapsing to the ground.

"At last, his mother began healing, slowly," the leader of the Guardians concluded. "But Augustus died from thirst and heatstroke while trying to find more water for her. Mother Nature took notice of his devotion, so she protected his body from the wild dogs and resurrected him as an immortal."

The scene flickered and faded away from the smooth surface to where Jack and North could only see their reflections again. "The spirits of summer, autumn, and spring all caught Mother Nature's attention somehow," said Father Christmas. "Now, let's move on to autumn."

"But doesn't this tunnel go further?" Jack could see that deeper in the shaft, there was still a lot more of the summer temple that they hadn't explored yet.

North laughed a merry laugh and smacked the winter spirit on the back, "The further you go, the hotter it gets, Jack. I just assumed that you wouldn't want to go in there." Not even waiting for the boy's reply, he started back toward the fountain room where the temples of autumn and spring waited.

Jack hurried after North as to not get left behind in the burning shrine of summer. He made sure to keep away from the walls until they've made it back to the fountain room. This time, the leader of the Guardians marched into the center path with the orange leaf banner hanging over it. The walls were covered in tree bark, and leaves of brilliant shades of yellow, red, and ginger scattered across the floor.

Their footsteps made the leaves crunch, and Jack tapped the ground with his staff to see if his powers would work in the Hollow. The white frost spread for a short amount of time before melting and shrinking to nothing. Jack bent down to feel the leaves, eyes widening in shock when they showed no sign of recent contact with ice. They weren't even wet or cold.

"Mother Nature takes good care of this place, doesn't she?" the white haired boy asked as he struggled to keep up with North's quick pace.

The jolly man didn't answer. The two Guardians came to a place where the road widened like in summer's temple. The autumn spirit's tooth container was sitting on a bed of red maple leaves at the center of the path. Other leaves of warm colors floated and blew around the room although Jack had no idea where they were even coming from.

One of the leaves landed of the tooth box. There was a small flash of orange, and North picked the leaf up from the ground and looked at it. It took Jack a moment to realize that words had been etched into the leaf by the little tooth chest.

North cleared his throat before reading from the leaf, "Scarlet Sycamore is the spirit of autumn. Also known as Mistress of Change, Painter of the Leaves, Duchess of Color, and Scarlet the Wild. She disguised herself as a male during the American Revolution so that she could join the army. Scarlet was eighteen when she died in the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778 while attempting to rescue a group of wounded soldiers."

Jack felt sick as he listened to the tragic, but brief, accounts of the other spirits. It made him wonder if his own tale of saving his sister was just as hard to hear as the stories of summer and autumn. If so, he was glad that he had never tried to share it with anyone.

North folded up the leaf and tossed it away where it disappeared among the many other leaves that filled the room. "As you can tell from her past, the spirit of autumn is..." he chose his words carefully. "She's very reckless but quite capable of many things. You need to stay alert – "

"Yeah, I know," Jack nodded, still feeling revolted from being informed of the gruesome ways these spirits had perished. "Can we just get the last one over with?"

Probably realizing the boy's discomfort, North didn't make any more comments on Scarlet Sycamore. The two Guardians left the temple of autumn behind and proceeded to the final shrine that was dedicated to the spirit of spring.

Upon entering the last tunnel, Jack couldn't see much since there was a thick, swirling blanket of fog billowing in the passageway. The walls remained mossy, but the floors slowly morphed into a dirt path that seemed to have more grass, flowers, and other forms of life dotting it the deeper the two Guardians walked.

Jack tried to be careful and not kill any of the flowers with his frosty touch, but he soon found that the flowers were protected by some sort of enchantment which kept them safe from harm. The fog rippled around the spirit of winter, and they did not freeze into snowflakes when he passed by which confirmed that the entire temple was unaffected by outside forces.

Like the seasons before it, the shrine of spring had a place for the teeth that had belonged to the spirit before he or she became immortal. The teeth container of spring was laid in a bed of periwinkles with a spotlight of sunshine emphasizing it. Smaller spotlights were scattered around the room which kept the flowers and shrubbery alive.

The grassy floor was soft under Jack's feet as he and North approached the bed of blooming periwinkle. At once, the flowers ejected a puff of pollen in their faces to which both Guardians recoiled from. Jack's first assumption would be that the flowers were trying to protect the tooth case. But that hypothesis was proven wrong instantly when the yellow pollen swirled and started forming the shape of a girl holding a bundle of herbs.

After wiping pollen out of his nose, North observed the scene. "The spirit of spring is Trixie Eden; the Rain Maiden, Lady of New Life, Empress of the Flowers, and Trixie the Grace."

Jack was starting to get a bit annoyed that all the seasonal spirits had so many titles. What was his title? Lord of Blizzards? The Ice Prince? Jack the Charming and Most Handsome? He was inclined to ask North if there were any cool titles left to choose from, but he decided that it could wait.

The pollen cloud shifted and formed that shape of Trixie Eden making a type of paste from grinding a root. North narrated, "The spirit of spring was a gifted apprentice herbalist since she was nine. By the time she was sixteen, she had saved the lives of eighteen people with her collection herbal medicine. She has only failed to help a patient thrice."

At once, Jack processed that 'failing to help a patient' meant that the patient passed away from illness. The pollen cloud scattered for a moment and came together again. This time, it depicted a strange flower with many buds that formed a small canopy over the stem.

"Trixie was killed by a flower known as the poison hemlock," North pointed at the pollen puff. "Treatment for the poison wasn't introduced until over a century later. And so, the child died in less than 24 hours."

Jack swallowed as his mouth felt dry and chalky. He turned away from the pollen cloud while it dissipated, yellow specs flying in all directions.

North put a hand on Jack's shoulder comfortingly, "You don't need to feel sympathy for them, Jack. They may have died in horrible ways, but they do not deserve our compassion. Especially not yours, my boy. Mother Nature does not want us meddling with her spirits' matters; she made that clear years ago."

"What is it between you and autumn?" Jack questioned bluntly. "It's like you hold a grudge against her, from the way you talk about her. What did she do to you?"

North hesitated for a brief moment before answering, "You'll know when you actually meet her. She's not easy to get along with. Let's leave it at that." He spun around on his heels and headed back toward the fountain room.

Jack took on last look around the misty temple of spring before backing away from the bed of flowers and catching up to North. He wandered how Trixie could be related to Bunnymund. Well, it makes sense if you think about it in terms of the relativity of spring and Easter. But biologically, Jack didn't want to know, or even ask the other Guardian, how that could have possibly worked out.

Back in the fountain room, North had his magical snow globe again. "The Workshop," he told it before throwing it to the ground. And the portal to the North Pole opened, granting them passage out of the Hollow.

* * *

**A/N: Yaaaaaaaaay! That's another chapter done. I wanted to put variety among the other seasonal spirits, not just a bunch of people from one place or of one gender; Augustus is African, Scarlet is of European decadence, but she sailed to North America. And Trixie is Asian. So sorry if it was sort of cheesy :3**

**Hey, thanks for those two kind readers who reviewed for me! And I'm just giggling like a manic as I watch that Favorite/Follow count go up! 3 favorites and 5 followers isn't too shabby for a story that has only two chapters so far, don't you think? And to JacksApplePie: I know Augustus isn't exactly the way you suggested, but I hope he still turned out alright ^_^ and thank you for your review!**

**I hope you'll all keep reading and next time... We get to meet the other seasonal spirits!**_**  
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	4. How the Other Spirits Found Out

_Chapter Four: How the Other Spirits Found Out_

Trixie Eden couldn't have been more surprised when the Easter Bunny leapt out of his rabbit hole and into her domain. The spirit of spring had been sitting on a smooth boulder in the forest, happily humming to herself as she wove daisies into a flower wreath. She pulled the stem of one blossom through the loop made by another and tied it off.

A line of flowers was standing in front of her eagerly, each of them anxious to be added to the wreath. Their petals and faces were the head, their stems were the bodies, their leaves were arms, and short, thin roots acted as legs. One daisy hopped up and down excitedly when Trixie reached down and picked it up without taking her pale, jade green eyes off of her masterpiece.

Soft sunlight streamed through the thin canopies of the trees around her, giving the spirit light to do her work. A thin mist floated through the forest all the time, making it seem beautiful in the day light and eerie at night.

"Hmm… one more," Trixie mused thoughtfully after estimating how many more flowers she would need in order to finish the ring.

Upon hearing this, all the flowers went into frenzy, emphasizing themselves by jumping up and down. Others tried to get her attention by letting loose puffs of pollen. While another group of daisies were attempting to leap up onto Trixie's boulder but were quite unsuccessful.

Trixie picked the flower that was nearest to her, and the other daisies all sank in disappointment. "Don't worry," the spirit told them with a smile. "I'll be making thousands of these wreaths when March comes. You'll all get your chance, I promise." she then turned back to her craft and began to weave the last flower into the laurel.

Suddenly, a giant hole opened in the ground before her, swallowing a dozen of the flowers standing nearby. Then, a Pooka jumped out with the fallen blossoms on his head, making it look like he was wearing a crown.

The flowers scattered in fear as Bunnymund lifted himself out of the hole and dusted off his fur.

Trixie blinked at him curiously. It's been a long while since her distant cousin came to visit; almost sixty years, actually. She slid off of her boulder and quickly smoothed out the wrinkles at the skirt of her white skate dress before speaking to Bunnymund. "Why are you here?"

She grimaced as her words came out harsher than she had expected. Trixie didn't socialize much, and therefore she had a hard time talking to anyone besides the flowers and animals that live in her forest.

"It's good to see you too," Bunnymund replied sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. He must have caught the small amount of hostility in Trixie's voice.

The spirit of spring winced in shame that she had hurt the Pooka. She bowed her head before looking back at the rabbit who was a good seven inches taller than her. "I'm sorry, Bunny, I really am. It's been a very long time, and I didn't mean to sound unfriendly. I'm just surprised that you're here all of a sudden." She sighed and grinned apologetically. "It's good to see you, Bunny."

Trixie must have sounded sincere enough as Bunnymund relaxed and even smiled a little. He looked around at the trees, new grass, flowers, and animals that inhabited the spirit of spring's domain. "This place hasn't really changed much, has it?"

"I like it the way it is," Trixie replied simply, fidgeting with the wreath of daisies she had finished. "You know I don't like change, Bunnymund, and neither does my flowers." She gestured in the direction of an ancient oak tree behind which large groups of periwinkle were hiding, watching Trixie and Bunny's exchange.

"How are Tooth and Sandy?" the spring spirit said to the Easter Bunny, trying her best to be polite. After attempting to observe the manners of humans, Trixie had learned that asking about a visitor's family usually leaves a good impression. "Are… are they doing alright? I heard that North – "

"Don't embarrass yourself, Trixie," Bunny interrupted smoothly while inspecting his paws. "I know bloody well you couldn't care less about the other Guardians. So quit acting like you do. We both know you're just trying to make conversation, but don't make to conversation about something you don't want to talk about. You'll only be torturing yourself."

There was a long silence while the spring spirit grimaced at her social awkwardness. She always did her best to take whatever advice Bunnymund was willing to give her about interacting with beings besides plants and animals. Yes, it was true that Trixie really didn't care how the Guardians were doing. She was only striving to be cordial around people, a goal that she had been working toward for over two hundred years. Sadly, she couldn't say that she had made any real progress.

"Just why a_re _you here, may I ask?" Trixie finally asked. This was a topic that she did want to talk about. "If you only want to visit for no direct reason, I know you would have come a long time ago. So tell me, dear cousin, why have you come to my realm at this time?"

Bunnymund hesitated for a split second but recovered very quickly. He purposely hopped onto the boulder that Trixie had been sitting on before. "There's something you ought to know, Trixie…" he began with the spirit of spring gazing at him expectantly. "It might come across as a shock to you."

"And why is that?" Trixie responded immediately.

Bunny decided to get straight to the point, not paying attention to the fact that he sounded very severe. He explained about the prophecy North had seen at the Workshop and about how the other Guardians are already starting to make preparations to keep Jack safe from the Event.

"But Scarlet and Augustus," Trixie said with worry. "They don't know about this. We have to tell them!"

Bunnymund shook his head and grabbed the spirit's arm to keep her from wisping away. "No, no, no, no, no. Are you nuts? We don't want them to know. If they find out, they'll bloody declare war on us! It's better if they don't know anything about the Event. That makes them an easier target, and your chances of living would be higher."

Trixie scowled at him in sheer horror. "How care you say that, Bunny? To keep this from Augustus and Scarlet is the most unjust thing I have ever heard." She ignored the bewildered expression that crossed the Easter Bunny's face. "It's like cheating. All the spirits should have an equal chance of living through this Event. It would be unfair and completely barbaric to leave Scarlet and Augustus while I go into hiding to save myself."

"'Fair'?!" the Easter Bunny demanded. "At a time like this, you're still thinking about playing 'fair'?! Are you bloody insane?"

"I know Scarlet and Augustus would do the same for me," Trixie replied defiantly.

"Of course they will," Bunny muttered sarcastically as he jumped down from his boulder and began to pace back and forth over the soft grass. "You know bloody well they won't give you a second thought, Trixie! Especially not that Augustus; he'll be out to get Jack. This is summer's chance to show that he's better than winter, and Augustus won't let it slip away. Listen to me, Trixie," he grabbed the spirit's feminine shoulders.

"I know you're all about peace and serenity and trust and all that. But I'm telling you, Trix, if you want to live, you have to look out for yourself. You're lucky I ditched Jack to come and help you – "

Trixie's eyes widened, "You ditched a fellow Guardian to help me instead?!"

"That's not the point!" Bunny was getting hysterical. He hastily resumed his pacing, "Not telling Scarlet and Augustus about the Event doesn't count as cheating. Quit kidding yourself, Trixie, if it were the other way around with the spirits of summer and autumn knowing the prophecy and us being the clueless ones, we both know that they'll choose not to tell us. Because they use their survival instincts!

"To survive the Event, you have to increase the possibility that the other spirits would be caught off guard and easily taken down by whatever the disaster will be. And what better way to do that than to keep this information to ourselves? You want to live, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Trixie snapped with mild irritation. "But… maybe we can form an alliance or…"

Bunny sighed and face-palmed, "Scarlet Sycamore cannot be trusted, let's just make that clear. Augustus might be decent enough to have as an ally, but he's going after Jack. And if you ally yourself with summer, I won't have any blooming chance of convincing the Guardians to help you, too."

The spirit of spring wanted to argue, but she knew that Bunnymund was right in every way. She could _hope_ that summer and autumn would play fair, but she couldn't be absolutely sure. She met Augustus a few times, and he seemed like a good bloke; very gentlemanlike, quite serious, a bit stoic, and also very handsome. But his first target would be Jack Frost of winter who is a friend of Bunny's (sort of), so that can't be an option. Trixie had also met Scarlet a couple of times. The spirit of autumn wasn't the easiest to get along with; had a fiery temper, reckless personality, and a very war-like demeanor. She would make a very valuable ally, but one cannot put their trust in Scarlet; she has been known to be quite deceitful and cunning.

And as for Jack Frost, Trixie had not met him yet. However, she knew that Mother Earth did not choose him, so Trixie had always imagined him to be lesser than herself, Augustus, and Scarlet. Perhaps a short, scrawny little elf of some sort with a pointy face, white hair, and silver eyes?

The spring spirit suppressed a giggle at this image of Jack Frost. She turned to Bunnymund, who was still pacing over the grass and starting to trample it brown. "Excuse me?" Trixie called to her cousin. "Will you stop pacing like that? You're killing my poor grass!"

Bunny stood still for a moment before looking down and realizing that he had worn away a strip of green from the earth. "Er… sorry," he stepped away from the dead grass and sat back down on the boulder again.

"You're right, Bunny," Trixie said, sitting down beside him. "I don't know for sure how Scarlet and Augustus would react, but it's best to be safe and keep this prophecy between the two of us." She gave the rabbit a bright smile. "And thank you, dear cousin." She placed her flower wreath on top of Bunnymund's head.

Bunny's eyes widened when he felt the wreath in between his ears. He quickly shook it off, but Trixie picked it up and placed it there again, laughing a laugh that sounded like tinkling bells. "Keep it on, Bunny," the spring spirit giggled. "You look adorable wearing it." She waved a hand at the wreath, and it sat itself to the top of the Pooka's head, sticking there as if glued in place.

"What the bloody – what is this?! Trixie!" Bunny tried to pull the flowers off, but they stayed stuck to the top of his furry head. "I came all the way out here to warn you about the Event and this is my reward? Get this bloody thing off of me!"

Trixie only sat by and laughed along with her flowers at the struggling Easter Bunny wearing a crown of daisies. None of the inhabitants of the forest noticed a large, black crow taking flight from one of the highest branches of the tallest tree.

The bird had been perched in the tree all morning and had had a perfect view of Trixie and Bunnymund's conversation. It gave the forest a cold, empty look before soaring out of the canopies made by thousands of leaves and flying south.

* * *

Scarlet Sycamore had long awaited her crow's arrival. She sat in a throne made of hardened amber in her tent made of giant orange, red, and yellow leaves and absentmindedly picked at her nails. Leaning down to look at the armrests of her fancy chair, she saw a dead dragonfly, forever trapped in the dried tree sap. The autumn spirit was tracing the shape of the bug when a black crow swooped into the tent from the large opening flap.

The bird landed on the back of Scarlet's throne and made cawing sounds as if to speak to her.

After a long moment of listening to the crow's ugly cries, the autumn spirit narrowed her piecing brown eyes at it. "Are you sure you heard that right, my pet?" When the crow nodded eagerly, Scarlet gripped the edges of her armrests to the point in which her knuckles turned white.

The crow immediately tried fly away, probably afraid that its mistress's temper would be taken out on it.

"Get back here!" Scarlet barked at it before it could make a quick escape. As the bird cowered in fright, Scarlet spoke to herself, "I knew, one of these days, Trixie would know something I don't. She's related to one of the Guardians, and Man in Moon tells the Guardians everything. It's good that I had you go to spring's forest, isn't it?" she turned to her terrified crow.

The crow swallowed and nodded helpfully.

"Poor, poor Trixie Eden…" Scarlet went on, talking to herself more than the bird. "She really should have told me herself. We could have been great friends, pity. Since she decided to keep this valuable piece of information to herself, I'm afraid that I cannot hope to earn trust. And she can no longer earn mine, either. It's sad, really."

Although her voice was calm and soft, the crow knew that Scarlet was furious about the situation.

"Life would have been easier for both of us, Trixie and I, if she would have just offered the information to me herself," Scarlet went on. "But no, I had to send a spy to her forest to get the evidence that I wanted. Well," a wicked smile graced her lips. "The joke's on her from now on. I think I'll alert dear, sweet Augustus for her."

When the spirit of autumn turned to it, the black crow twitched with fear and gulped audibly.

Scarlet's sharp smile slowly melted into a better natured one as she picked up a random leaf from the ground around her, laid it on her lap, and pointed her right index finger at it. She took a deep breath and began moving her finger as if writing with it.

The crow looked over the spirit's shoulder and saw that the pigment of the autumn leaf had been sucked away and reinserted in the form of tangerine colored ink, spelling out words for Scarlet's letter to Augustus.

The red haired spirit looked over her leaf letter before shoving it at her bird. "Take this to Augustus, _now._"

Shakily clutching the leaf in its beak, the crow took flight once again.

Scarlet watched it disappear through the opening flap of the tent and followed the shadow it casted on the roof of the pavilion of autumn leaves until it, too, vanished from sight. The autumn spirit then picked up another leaf from the ground and twirled it expertly in her hands for a few seconds before flinging it with divine accuracy at an innocent moth that flew by.

The leaf had turned hard and sharp around the edges before impaling the moth through the abdomen, instantly killing it, and pinning the dead body to a nearby wall.

Scarlet smiled with satisfaction when she saw that she still had the knife-throwing talent even after not practicing for so many years.

* * *

West from Scarlet's realm was the home of Augustus Phoenix. It sat on a beach of bronze sand and was so shiny and gold that one would find it almost impossible to look at directly. The sun light from above reflected wonderfully off of the palace, making it blindingly bright.

Scarlet's messenger crow entered through one of the windows of the fortress and waddled around the corridors and halls before finding the receiver in a room deep within the palace. The place was very, very hot indeed. The crow simply dropping the leaf onto Augustus's head before hastily soaring away, desperate to leave the castle that felt like an oven.

Augustus stopped what he was doing when the maple leaf fell in his face. With one look at the red and orange writing on a pure white leaf, he could tell who it was from. In no hurry, he unfolded it and began to read.

_Augustus,_

_You won't believe this! Trixie has turned on us. She heard that a Disaster Event would kill three of the four seasons, and she didn't even bother to tell us. She intends to leave the two of us at the mercy of this Event while she and her Guardians friends find sanctuary. _

_I know how much you've loathed Jack Frost, dear Augustus, and now is your chance to strike at him! Or, even better, if you are the one to survive the Event, it will prove that you are superior to him. I will be happy to assist you, of course. The Event is coming. We must prepare._

_This is NOT a prank._

_-Scarlet Scorpio Sycamore_

Frankly, Augustus found it hard to believe that Trixie would do such a thing. He tossed the leaf away and it burst into flames from the extreme temperature in the room. But, he knew for a fact that Trixie was related to E. Aster Bunnymund, one of the Guardians.

_And if Trixie has gone to the side of the Guardians… _the summer spirit thought._ Then she is my enemy from that point on. Anyone who fraternizes Jack Frost is no friend of mine. I do not trust Scarlet, but she is all I have for an ally._

Without any further hesitation, Augustus stormed out of his chambers and into the sunlight. His radiant gold eyes were not bothered by ultraviolet rays as he stared directly at the sun. He reached his hand out and grabbed a ball of light.

He held the sphere of sunlight close to his mouth as if telling it a secret. After taking a few minutes of whispering to the sphere, Augustus released it into the air.

The little ball of glowing yellow bobbed up and down like a balloon in the direction of the autumn spirit's domain, carrying the summer spirit's reply to her letter.

* * *

**A/N: There you have it! Thanks so much for the kind reviews (more of them would make me even happier, and happy writers mean fast ones)! I'm so sorry that this chapter was rather late. I've been working on other projects. But thanks for baring with me ^_^;**

**And a review would be very much appreciated! Bye!**


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